The airline's pilot was forced to land the aircraft some 20 minutes after take off after a window blew out in flight. Boeing said it was gathering information and was ready to support the investigation. Alaska Airlines grounded all its Boeing 737-9 aircraft, after one of its flights was forced to conduct an emergency landing when a window and piece of fuselage blew out in midair on Friday. The hole in the aircraft was ripped open some 20 minutes after take off, causing the cabin to depressurize.   Oxygen masks were released and the plane safely landed soon after, with over 170 passengers and six crew members unharmed. "Following tonight's event on Flight 1282, we have decided to take the precautionary step of temporarily grounding our fleet of 65 Boeing 737-9 aircraft," Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement. The US National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration and Alaska Airlines each said they were investigating the incident, which is standard procedure for emergency landings. Difficult start in the skies for the latest 737s The Boeing 737-9 MAX just received its certification last October, FFA online records show. It has been on 145 flights since going into commercial service on Nov 11. Boeing said it was gathering more information and had a technical team ready to support the investigation. Alaska Airlines' Minicucci said the carrier was "working with Boeing and regulators to understand what occurred."   The twin-engine, single-aisle Max is the newest version of most-flown commercial series of aircraft in the world, Boeing 737s. In service since May 2017, it's frequently used on US domestic flights. Two Max 8 aircrafts crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people and prompting a worldwide grounding of all Max 8 and Max 9 planes that lasted nearly two years. In 2018, a Lion Air Boeing 737 Max plane in Indonesia crashed, killing 189 people. A year later, the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max crashed soon after take off from Addis Ababa, killing 157 people.

US President Joe Biden’s administration announced Tuesday it was halting petroleum development activity in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, reversing a move by former president Donald Trump to allow drilling. The Interior Department said it was notifying firms of the freeze, pending a comprehensive environmental review that will determine whether leases in the area known as ANWR should be “reaffirmed, voided or subject to additional mitigation measures,” the agency said in a statement. The announcement deals a blow to the long-contested quest of oil companies to drill in the sensitive territory. The push for development picked up momentum after Trump announced the leasing plan last November shortly after losing reelection to Biden. At a lease sale in January over some 1.6 million acres, US officials auctioned off 11 oil tracts. Major oil companies sat out the bidding, and nine of the leases went to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state agency, while two went to small companies. Biden had promised to protect ANWR during the presidential campaign. White House climate advisor Gina McCarthy noted Biden’s promise and said the move reflected his belief that “national treasures are cultural and economic cornerstones of our country,” according to a White House statement. Biden “is grateful for the prompt action by the Department of the Interior to suspend all leasing pending a review of decisions made in the last administration’s final days that could have changed the character of this special place forever,” McCarthy added. Environmentalists have long argued that safeguarding ANWR is critical to protect polar bears and other vulnerable wildlife and for indigenous populations that hunt caribou in the region. But the oil industry has long sought to drill in the area, which is thought to potentially hold billions of barrels in oil. Key Alaska lawmakers such as Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, have strongly backed development. The Alaska Wilderness League, which had joined other environmental groups in litigation against the Trump administration’s development efforts, applauded the Biden administration’s action. “Suspending these leases is a step in the right direction,” said Kristen Miller, acting executive director for the Alaska Wilderness League. – Continued threat – “There is still more to be done. Until the leases are canceled, they will remain a threat to one of the wildest places left in America,” Miller said. “Now we look to the administration and Congress to prioritize legislatively repealing the oil leasing mandate and restore protections to the Arctic Refuge coastal plain.” But the American Petroleum Institute said the oil industry knows how to develop responsibly and that the decision will cost Alaska jobs and tax revenue. “Policies aimed at slowing or stopping oil and natural gas production on federal lands and waters will ultimately prove harmful to our national security, environmental progress and economic strength,” API official Kevin O’Scannlain said. “At a time of economic recovery, this action only serves to withhold the good-paying jobs and economic revenue that safe and responsible oil and gas development would provide to local Alaskan communities.” The Biden administration’s move on ANWR comes only days after it sanctioned another Trump administration plan on oil development in Alaska, involving a ConocoPhillips project in Alaska’s North Slope in the former Naval Petroleum Reserve. Source: AFP/BSS AH